Life's Peachy Keen

After a week of work, we're finally settling into a groove at my firm. Last week began with training and ended with the usual "poke-and-prod-the-summers-to-see-what-they're-like" phase. Now that we all pretty much have the lay of the land, we're working and eating like there's no tomorrow.

Work update:
I really love (most of) my fellow summers. They are awesome, fun, smart people, and it's really great to know that smart people can have a good time, too. I say "most of" because my office mate (of all people!) is a workaholic. He is way too serious about everything, and it seemed to peeve him that I didn't have much to do this afternoon (my new assigning attorney didn't ever get back to me about setting an appointment to talk about the new assignment). There I was, just lazying the day away after having spent hours on a memo that I'd already turned in (and without another assignment to keep me busy), and he finally says "Shouldn't you be doing something? Like reading a firm brochure or something?" Asshole! Granted, the delivery was very dry, but after having lived even for a week with nonstop dry sarcastic humor, I was ready to throw my laptop at him. Dry sarcastic humor has its place, but not in enclosed spaces for the duration of one's day.

I finished up my first assignment this morning and turned it in an hour early. I actually got my feedback this same day, and (yay!) it was very positive. My assigning attorney even said, "This was your first assignment? You did a great job. I'm sure I didn't do nearly as well when I was a summer on my first assignment." That was very encouraging, and I am now not as scared to face what the rest of the summer has to offer.

(And more importantly...)
Food update:
A recap of last week's restaurants:

Tuesday, Artisanal: A cheese and wine bistro in the W. 30s. It was really cute and made me feel transported into some wonderfully relaxed European cafe. Although I'm not much of a cheese fan, I'm willing to try everything once (usually twice or three times even), and my first fondue experience was a lot of fun. I had a divine piece of cod that just fell onto my fork, making it that much more easy to enjoy it bite-by-succulent-bite. To top it all off (and what I'm most excited about, having a HUGE sweet tooth, you know), I had a cheesecake the size of my head. It was amazing.

Wednesday, Capital Grille: A new place just a block and a half away from the office, this steak place served up a delicious piece of juicy squishily-wonderful filet mignon. I was super impressed with their use of the black napkin for those of us who had black slacks/skirts on. How fancy! The white chocolate mousse was incredible.

Friday, Gramercy Tavern: An unintimidating restaurant with unbelievable everything, this "tavern" had a warm and inviting feel. I had the rabbit. (Sorry to those of you freaking out about my eating Thumper.) The rabbit was amaaaazing. It was so soft and juicy. It wasn't tough at all, and I could just picture a fat, fluffy bunny who did nothing but sit there and eat carrot after carrot. I'm sorry, Thumper. For dessert, I had the apricot tart, and it was reeeally awesome. It was beautifully presented and tasted even more wonderful. Wow.

Today, BLT Steak: The turf half of BLT (there's also BLT Raw, a seafood place), BLT Steak was very poshy in a nondescript way. That may sound horrible, but don't get me wrong -- it was a beautiful place. I initially ordered the sea bass, but then changed my mind about ordering fish when their specialty was (obviously) steak. I switched my order to the filet, and I didn't feel as dorky/weird when one of the associates who was with us did the same thing. Dessert was creme brulee, and it was really good. The initially didn't brown it enough for my tastes, so I asked them to go over it once more. After that, it looked (and tasted) ab fab.

Stay tuned for the next culinary adventure (and I promise I'll try something other than the filet next time). :)

And yes, AC is still awwwwesome.